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Five Players Ejected As Magic and Timberwolves Trade Punches

It was a wild scene at the Target Center on Friday night.

Wilton Jackson

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A fight that included multiple players and saw punches fly broke out during the Magic’s matchup with the Timberwolves on Friday night at the Target Center.

The scuffle started in front of Orlando’s bench when Timberwolves guard Austin Rivers missed a three. He and Magic center Mo Bamba then confronted each other. 

Bamba stood up off the bench and appeared to throw a punch. Video showed Rivers fighting back before the melee spilled over to the court.

“I got a good three, missed that,” Rivers said after the Timberwolves’ 127–120 loss. “I just heard language on that bench. He [Bamba] said something the play before... I’m not going to snitch on the dude. I didn’t like the way he was talking to me.

“The next possession... I just pretty much said keep it respectful. I feel bad I got thrown out of game…  It makes me feel really bad… I only got to play 10 minutes tonight.”

Magic guard Jalen Suggs pulled Rivers away from Bamba by his neck and slung him to the court. Then, Jaden McDaniels and Taurean Prince joined the wild scene, and it turned into a full-team fracas. 

“Suggs grabbed me by my neck ... that’s big no no,” Rivers said. “That’s the only thing that really affected me … I can’t even be mad at Suggs. ... I can’t even be mad at Bamba. He a man, I’m a man. When you stand up that fast and throw a punch … I have to protect myself.

I am fine. I hope he is fine. I don’t have any ill will against him.”

After officials reviewed the play, five players were ejected from the game: Minnesota’s Rivers, Prince and McDaniels, and Orlando’s Bamba and Suggs. 

Friday’s altercation comes one night after Grizzlies guard Dillon Brooks and Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell were both ejected for fighting in Cleveland’s 128–113 win. That scuffle began when Mitchell took a shot below the waist from Brooks’s left arm, and the two were tangled. Brooks was suspended one game and Mitchell was fined.

Watching Friday’s fight, the Cleveland guard tweeted, saying “NBA script been crazy recently,” along with a clip from the 2005 comedy “The Longest Yard.”

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Wilton Jackson
WILTON JACKSON

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